{"id":76050,"date":"2025-07-19T18:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/76050\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T18:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:42:11","slug":"playing-the-all-star-game-at-home-creates-special-feeling-for-kelsey-mitchell-indiana-fever-players-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/76050\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing the All-Star Game at home creates special feeling for Kelsey Mitchell, Indiana Fever players"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell spent last week\u00a0tamping down the All-Star excitement.<\/a><\/p>\n

First, she had to play some crucial games.<\/p>\n

On Friday, she finally had a chance to show how she felt about playing Saturday\u2019s game on her home court. Mitchell\u2019s eyes opened wide, the trademark grin stretched across her face and the words started flying out of her mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel grateful,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel happy that my family and friends are able to come. It\u2019s close for us because I\u2019m from Cincinnati, so a lot of us get to connect, reconnect through basketball. It\u2019s just fun, it\u2019s a good experience and I\u2019m grateful, I\u2019m grateful I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell is making her third straight All-Star trip, this one just down the street from home, and is joined by two teammates \u2014\u00a0guard Caitlin Clark<\/a>\u00a0and center Aliyah Boston \u2014 for the second straight year. Nothing about this is routine, though.<\/p>\n

Indianapolis is the 13th city to host All-Star weekend, which was played primarily in the New York to Washington corridor during its first decade of existence and has moved West more recently. Last year\u2019s game was in Phoenix, and Las Vegas hosted three of the previous five and could be in the mix next summer, too.<\/p>\n

If things go as well Saturday as they did Thursday and Friday, perhaps Indianapolis will find itself in the regular rotation. Friday night\u2019s festivities drew an estimated 15,000 fans to the arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time I did the 3-point shootout in Vegas, it didn\u2019t feel sold out,\u201d\u00a03-point champion Sabrina Ionescu.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe last time (Stephen Curry) beat me when we were here in Indy. So really happy to be able to be here and put on a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most players in town such as Atlanta guard Allisha Gray know \u201cHoosiers\u201d both as the Indiana University nickname and as the popular movie title and appreciate playing in a state with so much basketball history.<\/p>\n

But not everyone has had the same hometown experience for home All-Star Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in front of home fans is definitely fun, though it brings in a mix of everything,\u201d said four-time All-Star Kelsey Plum, who played six seasons with Las Vegas before joining Los Angeles this year. \u201cAt the time, I was in Vegas (where) we had a lot of visitors in town, so it didn\u2019t feel super homey. It felt kind of like everyone was cheering for their person.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s unlikely to be the case Saturday night.<\/p>\n

While Clark and Boston, the last two WNBA Rookies of the Year, possess more star power, Mitchell is revered locally for her scoring prowess, upbeat personality and resilience. The eight-year veteran finally got her first taste of playoff basketball last year, which explains why Clark expects Saturday to be an emotional game for Mitchell.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the hometowns with drawing power.<\/p>\n

Former Fever guard Erica Wheeler, now a teammate of 34-year-old Skylar Diggins in Seattle, drew a loud ovation when she was reintroduced during Friday\u2019s skills challenge.<\/p>\n

Diggins, a seven-time All-Star, was Indiana\u2019s 2009 Miss Basketball Award winner before leading her hometown Notre Dame Fighting Irish to three consecutive Final Four appearances, one in the very same fieldhouse hosting Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always love when I come here,\u201d Diggins said, calling\u00a0Thursday\u2019s orange carpet presentation the best she\u2019s seen.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe fans are amazing. This is a great host city. It makes sense that it\u2019s here and I\u2019m happy because like I said, I get to see a lot of my family and friends, and I\u2019ve already seen people around town that I haven\u2019t seen in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis experience already has others making pitches for their cities to play host.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be nice, but I feel like tonight we\u2019ll represented by a lot of Atlanta Dream fans, so I can\u2019t wait,\u201d Gray said. \u201cThe league needs to put its All-Star (Game) in Atlanta \u2014 soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell might endorse that idea, too, given that it would give her another chance to eat at Wheeler\u2019s restaurant in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

For now, though, Mitchell intends to savor this rare moment with her family, friends, teammates and, yes, even competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us as people, it\u2019s an opportunity to connect on different levels and for us, I think, basketball is a way to do that,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s fun for the city, I think it\u2019s fun for our families. It\u2019s just fun for the world, considering everything that\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell spent last week\u00a0tamping down the All-Star excitement. First, she had…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-76050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114881373606163781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}